London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

The debate on Scottish independence will begin in earnest this week as Holyrood and Westminster prepare to sign an agreement on the holding of a 2014 referendum.

The Prime Minister is expected to sign a deal with Scotland's First Minister tomorrow granting the Scottish Parliament the power to stage the historic vote.

David Cameron will meet Alex Salmond in Edinburgh following months of negotiations about the ballot, expected to be held in autumn 2014.

Salmond's deputy Nicola Sturgeon said the agreement would allow opposing campaigners to focus on the issues at the heart of the debate.

Ms Sturgeon told Sky News: "The good thing about getting the process issues out of the way, which we'll do tomorrow, is that we can get on to that substantive debate about why Scotland would be better as an independent country."

Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure said negotiations with Scottish Secretary Michael Moore had been "constructive" and both sides had made compromises.

The ballot is likely to be limited to a single Yes-No option.

Suggestions of a second question on further devolution, short of independence, were firmly opposed by the UK Government.

The referendum is expected to be open to 16 and 17-year-olds as supported by the Nationalists.

"If you consider issues over the timing, the question, the franchise, all issues which at the start of the year David Cameron was making noises about...all of these things will now be determined by the Scottish Parliament. I think that is a very good outcome," Ms Sturgeon told the Murnaghan show.

"Over the next couple of years we will set out all of the answers to the questions people rightly are asking about independence.

"We will make it abundantly clear what people will be voting for if they vote 'yes'.

"But of course the responsibility also lies with those advocating a 'no' vote to say what voting no would mean.

"As far as I can see it would mean the continued dismantling of our welfare state and the continued squandering of Scotland's resources."

Mr Moore said the agreement would produce a referendum that would be "legal, fair and decisive".

The Liberal Democrat told BBC One's Sunday Politics show: "I think it's a good agreement. I believe it will now allow us to put up in lights the big issues about the big debate...on what is best for Scotland.

"I believe that when we look at the economy, at defence, at our place in the world, on all these big issues people across Scotland will continue to support Scotland being in the United Kingdom.

"Independence is about Scotland leaving the UK, becoming a separate state, taking on all the burdens and risks that go with that and losing the benefits and opportunities that we have as part of the UK," he said.

"Any detail about who is voting and who isn't has to be in the referendum bill that the Scottish Government will put to the parliament in due course.

"As a Liberal Democrat I don't have a problem with 16 and 17-year-olds being involved in elections or referenda.

"I accept that at a Westminster level there's no consensus and you'd need that to be able to move on."

The most recent poll on independence suggests support for leaving the UK has dropped.

A survey of 995 adults, published last week, showed support for the Union at 53% compared with support for independence at 28%.

Ms Sturgeon said she was confident support would shift in the run up to the referendum.

"The game has changed considerably in the last couple of weeks," she told Sky news.

"We now know there is a Tory-Labour consensus to roll back the progress of devolution and whichever one of these parties is in government at Westminster we know that they want to take away people's bus passes, they want to take away free personal care and free prescriptions - the things that are the big achievements of the Scottish Parliament."

Former chancellor Alistair Darling, who is leading the cross-party Better Together campaign, said he was pleased the referendum agreement had been made.

"The key thing at stake in these negotiations was to get the single question," he told Sunday Politics.

"I would have preferred to have had this referendum in the autumn of 2013 because frankly a two-year election campaign is going to try the patience of the public, never mind the politicians and those who write about it.

"In relation to 16 and 17-year-olds I personally don't think you should change the franchise for one particular referendum or election, however I understand...what the UK Government has said is look, we will not seek to block the Scottish Parliament from extending the franchise if that is what they want to do.

Mr Darling said he was now anxious to focus on the merits of Scotland remaining in or leaving the UK.

"Nicola Sturgeon rightly keeps going on about the economy which is absolutely central," he said.

"I wonder if she has reflected for example on the fact that their policy of keeping the pound in the fiscal union actually means that the Scottish Parliament would have to have its budget tax and spent agreed with what would remain of the UK, as they are doing in the eurozone.

"It really demonstrates the sooner we get onto the merits of the argument and cut through some of the bluster and the nonsense that's been set out by the Nationalists over the last few years, the better it will be."

"The people of Scotland are getting tired of the overblown, elaborate set pieces for a First Minister who has convinced himself he is making history," she said.

"They would rather hear how his Government is going to deal with the public spending crisis that is impacting on our hospitals and schools and who is going to shoulder the burden of the £3 billion of cuts. Will it be the people already suffering from SNP cuts now?

"Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon would have us believe that the referendum is the answer to all of Scotland's problems but make us wait another two years for our chance to have our say. It is fundamentally dishonest."

According to the latest YouGov poll commissioned by the SNP, 64% of respondents said they thought the Scottish Government was better at making decisions for Scotland than the UK Government which received 24%. The remaining 12% said they did not know.

The poll questioned 1,002 over 18s between October 10 and 12.

An SNP spokesman said: "By a margin of nearly three to one, people trust the Scottish Government rather than the UK Government to make the right decisions for Scotland - which is a key factor in building a winning case for an independent Scotland in the 2014 referendum.

"The case for Yes is there to be won, and people are responsive to it as is clearly shown by these poll figures."